Identification of dynamic stiffness matrices of elastomeric joints using direct and inverse methods

New experiments are designed to permit direct comparison between direct and inverse identification methods of the dynamic stiffness matrices of elastomeric joints, including non-diagonal terms. The joints are constructed with combinations of inclined elastomeric cylinders to control non-diagonal terms in the stiffness matrix. The inverse experiment consists of an elastic metal beam end-supported by elastomeric joints coupling the in-plane transverse and longitudinal beam motion. A prior method is extended to identify the joint dynamic stiffness matrices of dimension 3 from limited modal measurements of the beam. The dynamic stiffness and loss factors of the elastomeric cylinders are directly measured in a commercial elastomer test machine in shear, compression, and inclined configurations and a coordinate transformation is used to estimate the kinematic non-diagonal stiffness terms. Agreement is found for both dynamic stiffness and loss factors between the direct and inverse methods at small displacements. Further, the identified joint properties are employed in a model that successfully predicts the modal parameters and accelerance spectra of the inverse experiment. This article provides valuable insight on the difficulties encountered when comparing system and elastomeric component test results.

► New experiments are designed to permit direct comparison between resonant and non-resonant identification methods.
► The joints are constructed with combinations of inclined elastomeric cylinders.
► A prior method is extended to identify the joint dynamic stiffness matrices.
► The proposed methodology is employed to identify the dynamic stiffness properties of joints.